The document discusses a needs assessment being conducted at the S.C. Midlands Academy for the Performing Arts. Juniors and seniors are being asked to demonstrate their understanding of percussion skills by designing a topic presentation that could be added to the curriculum for underclassmen. Parents and students have been informed of the school's high standards and their accountability. The goal is to engage students in active learning and have them take ownership of the process. Feedback from the activity will help evaluate what concepts have been effectively learned.

1.
Week
6
Introduction
to
Topics
as
a
Learning
Activity
Needs
Assessment
EDU
652
Instructional
Design
&
Delivery
Thomas
Wilson
Lisa
Marie
Johnson
August
26,
2013

2.
1. What do you know? We have at the S.C. Midlands Academy for
the Performing Arts this term done a different series of exercises
to promote the 2 skill-set methodology which we believe is
an essential part of our curriculum in our Advanced Curriculum
for Percussion with Acoustic Drums. Now we will learn how
much the Juniors and Seniors have learned by letting them to
define the meaning of this subject which was ultimately to get
them to the place where they could do basic Solo Demos (video)
and now they will show their understanding by helping to design
it as a topic for the underclassmen in a presentation.
2. What do you want to know? It is our objective to ascertain
the level of understanding of each of our Juniors and Seniors
by having them write a topic which if good enough with some
editing by our Faculty advisors would be added to newly refined
assignments for addition to new Music Appreciation Introduction
to Percussion Curriculum.
3.What are you trying to measure, determine, or define? This is
is going to be a exercise primer which we will do in an Powerpoint
Format as an illustration of what they should consider in their own

3. Topics Exercises. We are trying to see how much of the vision of
what it means to be a percussionist has developed and this is
for their future in this chosen rich field of musicianship.
We are doing similarly what R. Mark Leckie has done with his
Active Learning Startegies,
Student-active learning shifts the action from you to the students.
The goal is to engage students by actively doing or thinking about a
problem, rather than passively listening and/or note-taking. There
are a variety of ways to engage students in classroom activities that
complement the lecture material by initiating, supplementing, and/or
reinforcing the content of the day. Utilizing authentic data is one
way to engage students
Having the learners engaged with authentic data is a key part of
what we are doing in this primer for their being able to have a
working template to create their own Topics Activities. They will
in their turn write activities to engage their underclassmen
counterparts.
4.How will you collect and record information? When they start
to do their Topics Activities it will be taking in effect the place of
what Mid-Terms would be in a conventional H.S. curriculum. They
are learning to model the actual activities of Conservatory Graduate
Students, as we are in the midst of drafting and submitting this as
accredited AP coursework for our Academy to the SACS for

4. their approval (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools).
Yet another example was work done at Lehigh University by
Professor Glenn Blank, to show how Student Active Learning
The goal of a class learning activity is to help students (and possibly
yours truly) gain practical knowledge !about a topic or skill related to
multimedia e-learning. !Bear in mind that a learning activity is more
than a passive Powerpoint presentation. !You should plan on leading
the class for about 10 minutes, give or take 5 minutes. If you think
you need more time or a lab setting, let me know further in advance.
It is emphasized by Prof. Blank that leading the class is important at
The outset for the first 10 minutes in order to not allow the students
to “nod off” and that it is not another “Ppt. Nap Time!”
5.How will you report the information you collect?
The parents as per the policy of S.C. Midlands Academy for the
Performing Arts are required to observe and participate with their
learners in this activity by ensuring they are “on task” and if they
are struggling to alert one of the Faculty Advisors and get tutorial
assistance! It is imperative that the learner feels that they are a
part of the learning process and not being left to their own devices.
6.Are all interested groups included in planning and conducting the
needs assessment?
The
student
are
told
that
at
the
beginning
of
the
term
that
the
Curriculum
of
the
S.C.
Midlands
Academy
for
the
Performing
Arts
has
high
standards
and

5.
both
the
parent
and
student
are
held
accountable
about
what
they
do.
This
is
a
school
with
a
long
history
of
academic
excellence.
So
emphatically
“YES!”
all
interested
parties
are
included
in
every
aspect
of
planning
and
conducting
the
Needs
Assessment.

6.
References
I
Engages
Students
with
Active
Learning
Strategies
Leckie,
R.
Mark
(author)
(Aug
2013)
Univ.
of
Mass-­‐Amhearst
Mark
Leckie
has
created
several
example
on
this
site
in
order
to
give
a
good
primer
about
how
to
setup
your
own
Student
Active
Learning
Curriculum
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/intro/activelearning.html
II
Class
Learning
Activities:
Topics
and
Criteria
Blank,
Glenn
Prof.
(author)
(date
unknown)
Lehigh
Univ.
Web
page
setup
by
Prof.
Blank
in
order
to
show
how
to
setup
laboratory
action
learning
with
an
emphasis
towards
Science
based
curriculums,
the
strategies
are
extremely
similar
to
those
of
Mark
Leckie,
but
goes
into
more
details
about
possible
variations
upon
some
of
the
activities